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STORY: GENEVA / DRC EBOLA UPDATE
TRT: 3:42
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 25 SEPTEMBER 2018, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Exterior shot, Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, United Nations press room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Salama, Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We are now extremely concerned, that several factors may be coming together over the next weeks to months to create a potential perfect storm. A perfect storm of active conflict, limiting our ability to access civilians, distress by segments of the community, already traumatized by decades of conflict and of murder. Driven by a fear of a terrifying disease, but also exploited and manipulated by local politicians prior to an election. And of course, a frightening high-threat pathogen that will exploit these community and political fault lines, and not respect borders, whether they are provincial or international.”
4. Wide shot, podium with Salama
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Salama, Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response, World Health Organization (WHO):
“There are no plans for WHO or UN staff to pull out – you know the UN philosophy is to stay and deliver under all circumstances unless we become direct targets of violence. And even then, we would consider all options in order to be relocated to a different place in order to continue the response. I don’t believe, as I said earlier, we can stop Ebola without a very significant presence of UN and partners, despite the fact that the Ministry of Health has exerted great leadership and is doing an extremely good job in this response.”
6. Med shot, journalists, podium in background
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Salama, Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response, World Health Organization (WHO):
“So we’ve seen attacks now on August 24, September 3, 9, 11, 16, 21 and most recently and most dramatically September 22 in the city itself of Beni. You will recall Beni is the side of our base for this entire operation.”
8. Close up, journalists typing
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Salama, Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We’ve seen, on the insecurity, that the ADF in particular has enormous capabilities. They’ve been able to overrun entire FARDC-bases in and around Beni, they’ve been able to ambush MONUSCO-forces, particularly on the road from Beni to Mavivi, and they’ve been able to reach, as I described on Saturday, right into the centre of the city of Beni itself.”
10. Close up, journalist
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Salama, Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We’ve heard this morning, that that ville morte, which was yesterday, has now been extended right through to Friday of this week, which basically means for the UN family, including WHO, a lockdown in Beni. Our operations are in effect suspended.”
12. Med shot, camerapersons
13. SOUNDBITE (English Peter Salama, Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We call on the international community to continue to fund the response, both in North Kivu, but also, and this is increasingly important, in the neighbouring provinces of the Kivus and Ituri, and in surrounding countries, with a priority on Uganda, which is now facing an imminent threat, a priority on Rwanda, a priority on South Sudan and Burundi.”
14. Med shot, journalists talking
15. Wide shot, row of journalists, podium in background
16. Close up, journalist using laptop
A "perfect storm" of active conflict and traumatized communities in Ebola-affected areas of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) could enable the deadly disease to spread, but there are “no plans” to pull UN workers out of the country despite concerns for their security, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.
WHO’s Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response Peter Salama told reporters today (25 Sep) in Geneva that “we are now extremely concerned, that several factors may be coming together over the next weeks to months to create a potential perfect storm,” adding that “a perfect storm of active conflict, limiting our ability to access civilians, distress by segments of the community, already traumatized by decades of conflict and of murder.”
The senior WHO official explained that he was extremely concerned about the recent uptick in attacks, including one that killed at least 21 civilians on Saturday (22 Sep) in the city of Beni, where WHO’s Ebola-response teams are based.
Salama said “we’ve seen attacks now on August 24, September 3, 9, 11, 16, 21 and most recently and most dramatically September 22 in the city itself of Beni,” adding that “you will recall Beni is the side of our base for this entire operation.”
Apart from the worrying targeting of civilians, Salama expressed concern that in the aftermath of the latest attack, outraged communities had declared Beni a “ville morte” so that mourners can grieve, effectively suspending UN operations in coming days.
Salama said “we’ve heard this morning, that that ‘ville morte’, which was yesterday, has now been extended right through to Friday of this week,” adding that “which basically means for the UN family, including WHO, a lockdown in Beni. Our operations are in effect suspended.”
He also said that that the development meant that on Monday (24 Sep), WHO staff were able to reach 20 per cent of the contacts they had hoped to in and around Beni.
The senior WHO official also said that Butembo could also declare a “ville morte” in coming days in sympathy with the people of Beni, potentially increasing the chances of the situation deteriorating rapidly.
Salama said “if we do see unsafe burials that can’t be responded to and symptomatic people that can’t be accessed, we can see this situation deteriorating very quickly.”
People were “driven by a fear of a terrifying disease”, the WHO senior official explained, adding they were also “exploited and manipulated by local politicians” and alarming social media messages prior to upcoming elections.
Salama also noted that in some areas, people have been “actively fleeing” health-workers, including in places where there have been a large number of cases in recent weeks.
He also said that the “frightening high-threat pathogen … will exploit these community and political fault lines, and not respect borders, whether they are provincial or international.”
In the nearly two months since the outbreak was declared, there have been 150 confirmed and probable cases of the disease, and 100 people have died, as of 23 September. Ebola’s symptoms include high fever and vomiting, which make it difficult to treat, because it resembles many other illnesses in its early stages.
Salama noted that the international response to the major public health threat had been excellent and that donors have responded “very quickly and generously” to this latest outbreak, which is DRC’s tenth since the 1970s.
He added that community engagement had also been successful, and the response had also been helped by “real breakthroughs” including the Merck vaccine – which has been given to some 11,700 people – and trial investigative treatments, which 39 people have received.
This progress risks being undone by the uptick in violence in the Kivus region, which is home to more than 100 armed groups, he said, before noting that neighbouring countries now also face an increased risk of the disease spreading.
He said “we call on the international community to continue to fund the response, both in North Kivu, but also, and this is increasingly important, in the neighbouring provinces of the Kivus and Ituri, and in surrounding countries, with a priority on Uganda, which is now facing an imminent threat, a priority on Rwanda, a priority on South Sudan and Burundi.”
One of the armed groups in DRC which pose a threat to civilians and the international response to Ebola, the ADF – Allied Democratic Forces - has sufficient military capacity to ambush blue helmets from the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in DRC (MONUSCO) and government forces – the FARDC.
Salama said “we’ve seen, on the insecurity, that the ADF in particular has enormous capabilities. They’ve been able to overrun entire FARDC-bases in and around Beni, they’ve been able to ambush (UN) MONUSCO-forces, particularly on the road from Beni to Mavivi, and they’ve been able to reach, as I described on Saturday, right into the centre of the city of Beni itself.”
Asked whether the increasing violence may force WHO to leave the area, Salama said that there were “no plans” to do so and that only a “very significant presence” of the UN and its partners could stop the disease.
He said "there are no plans for WHO or UN staff to pull out,” he added, “you know the UN philosophy is to stay and deliver under all circumstances unless we become direct targets of violence. And even then, we would consider all options in order to be relocated to a different place in order to continue the response. I don’t believe, as I said earlier, we can stop Ebola without a very significant presence of UN and partners, despite the fact that the Ministry of Health has exerted great leadership and is doing an extremely good job in this response.”
